This week, the big news out of the African crypto space is a new bill proposed by Kenyan lawmakers to tax crypto, NFT transfers, and online content that earns influencers money.
Some groups have described this new development by Kenya’s legislative arm as “targeted harassment”, stressing that the crypto tax is higher when compared to the fees charged for transactions by cryptocurrency exchanges.
While crypto traders have been warned from sharing their crypto wallet addresses needlessly on social media, several users received huge sums of money after one user initiated an unexpected airdrop.
Read Also: US court fines South African CEO, Cornelius Steynberg $3.4bn for Bitcoin fraud
Crypto enthusiasts receive $13,000 in Airdrop
After pasting their wallet addresses on a Twitter post, crypto enthusiasts were recently rewarded with a five-figure airdrop that piqued the community’s interest.
Late last month, WSBMod, a user with over 266,000 followers, asked people to disclose their Ethereum wallet addresses. The mysterious message made no mention of an upcoming token or airdrop. Nonetheless, a few curious people complied and provided their wallet addresses.
The tweet received little attention at first, but that changed rapidly with the debut of the WSB token on the Ethereum network. Those who had given their wallet addresses were advised to visit the website and claim their airdrops as soon as it went online. What happened next was nothing short of amazing.
As the value of the WSB token increased, airdrop recipients quickly realized that their allocations had far exceeded their expectations. One claimant reported selling their tokens for over 7 ETH, almost $14,000.
Over 100 Binance accounts linked with terrorism seized
Since 2021, Israeli police have seized over 190 Binance accounts with alleged ties to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Daesh, according to Reuters.
The research relies on previously unseen papers from Israel’s National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing (NBCTF), a counter-terrorism component of the Israeli Defense Ministry.
According to the documents, the NBCTF seized an undisclosed quantity of cryptocurrency in January from two accounts with claimed ties to Daesh, a terrorist group based in Syria and Iraq.
Other government documents, dating back to 2021, claim that more than 100 of the confiscated Binance accounts were linked to Hamas, an armed Palestinian organization that has frequently clashed with Israel’s Defence Forces.
The cash was seized by Israeli officials to “thwart the activity” of Daesh and “impair its ability to further its goals,” according to the NBCTF’s website.
Former Coinbase CTO loses $1 Million Bitcoin bet
Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase’s former chief technical officer, has settled his March bet that Bitcoin will reach $1 million in 90 days while warning the public that he still believes hyperinflation is on the way.
“I just burned a million to tell you they’re printing trillions,” Srinivasan started his Twitter thread. At the same time, he explained that he made the bet not to make money but rather to get people’s attention.
“So I spent my own money to send a provably costly signal that there’s something wrong with the economy and that it’s not going to be a ‘soft landing’ as [Fed Chair] Powell promises, but something much worse,” the former Coinbase CTO wrote.
Meanwhile, in a video posted in the same Twitter thread, the former Coinbase CTO explained that he decided to settle his bet early while making the case for why the current economic problems could get much worse quickly.
To illustrate how fast events can unfold, Srinivasan referred to a number of historical events, with the most recent being the two days it took for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) to collapse until the government had printed $200 billion.
Read Also: Want to invest in May? Here are 3 cryptocurrencies to consider
Kenya considers taxes on crypto
According to a recently filed bill, Kenyan MPs propose imposing a 3% tax on cryptocurrency and nonfungible token (NFT) transfers and a 15% tax on commercialized online content.
The Finance Bill, 2023, introduced to Kenya’s parliament on May 4, would establish a digital asset tax on “income derived from the transfer or exchange of digital assets,” with particular language for NFTs.
The bill will go through five rounds of readings, committees, and reports in the National Assembly before being delivered to the president for ultimate approval into law.
Crypto exchanges or anyone that initiate crypto or NFT transfers would be required to collect the tax, deducting 3% of the transfer value to be paid to the government. Exchanges not registered in Kenya would be required to register under the tax regime.
That is all from us this week. See you same time next week!
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